Natural ventilation as sustainable response to Covid-19: Designing an airborne disease treatment centre in Burkina Faso

Climate, pandemic and energy have often shaped and characterised the transformations of our built environment. Today, under the current pandemic conditions, we are witnessing the ability (or not) of the built environment in responding to such emergency through changes and adaptation. Among many approaches to such changes and emergencies, we are presenting the idea of relying on passive design as a medium to manage and prevent pandemic events. In particular, this paper will focus on the tight relation between natural ventilation and architectural design as a sustainable response to Covid-19. To do so, the work focus on the design of a Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) Treatment Centre in Dori, Burkina Faso, in collaboration with an International humanitarian Institution. This experience shows the ability of passive design and natural ventilation to deliver a sustainable and resilient health facility able to engage the local community and optimise resources in a context of scarcity. The importance of this work is to inform design guidelines for further health facilities in the same climatic area, as well as to set the example of passive design support the prevention of the spread of air borne diseases.